Language

Menu

Countdown to 2015

Tracking progress of countries towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 is critical to the work done by The Partnership and its members. Key to this undertaking is the Countdown to 2015 Initiative which focuses on 75 countries which represent 95% of all global maternal and child deaths. The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health hosts the Countdown Secretariat in the PMNCH offices in Geneva.

Countdown to 2015 Initiative

Established in 2005 as a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration, Countdown to 2015 is a global movement of academics, governments, international agencies, health-care professional associations, donors, and nongovernmental organizations, with The Lancet as a key partner. Countdown uses country-specific data to stimulate and support country progress towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Countdown tracks progress in the 75 countries where more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths occur, including the 49 lowest-income countries identified by the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. With a focus on MDGs 4 and 5, Countdown promotes accountability from governments and development partners, identifies knowledge gaps, and proposes new actions to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.

Countdown focuses on coverage — the proportion of individuals needing a health service or intervention who actually receive it — and on the equitable distribution of coverage across socioeconomic, ethnic, gender, and other population groups within countries. Countdown also examines the policy, health system, and financial factors that are crucial to determining coverage levels, patterns and trends. In addition, Countdown recognizes that a broader set of political, economic, social, technological, cultural, environmental, and other contextual factors affect coverage and mortality.

Countdown and Commission for Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health

In 2011, Countdown agreed to take responsibility for major parts of the follow-up agenda of the Commission for Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, including annual reporting and analysis of country-specific information on key indicators of coverage and its determinants, and to work closely with country-level partners to deepen the programmatic and policy impact of Countdown’s data and analysis in high-burden countries.

Download all Countdown data and reports

Since 2005, the Countdown to 2015 has produced regular reports on the progress towards achieving MDGs 4 and 5 with detailed country profiles and has held several Countdown Conferences to discuss and disseminate the data.

Find all documents, reports, country profiles, news releases and detailed reports on the Countdown Conference on the special Countdown website

You are here:

Quick Links

The Partnership (PMNCH)

joins the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health communities into an alliance of members, across eight constituencies. Working together, our goal is a world in which all women, newborns, children and adolescents not only are healthy, but thrive.